title: [Criminal claims about medical professional liability in the Instituto de Medicina Legal of Lima, Peru].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the characteristics of the criminal complaints claining medical professional liability, based on the expert reports issued by the Forensic Examination Division of Lima, Peru.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study was carried out, which included all the expert reports issued between 2005 and 2010 at the Forensic Examination Division of Lima, Peru. A descriptive analysis of each of the variables was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  60.3% (495/821) of the criminal complaints for medical professional liability were valued as being in accordance with the lex artis while 16.8% (138/821) were not in accordance with the lex artis. In 13% (107/821) of the cases, conclusions could not be drawn;in 9.9% (81/821) of the cases, the conclusions in the expert report did not include an valuations of the medical act.The cases in which the injury was attributed to the process of the disease itself accounted for 80.9% (502/620), and those in which in the injury was considered a result of the health care received were 19.0% (118/620). The distribution of the cause of the injury based on accordance with the lex artis showed significant differences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In our country, the number of claims for claimed medical liability is increasing, predominantly in relation to surgical specialties, where a medical act is more likely to be considered not in accordance with the lex artis. In addition, in a significant percentage of cases, no conclusions are drawn about the medical act.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Medicina Legal, Lima, Perú
authors.forename: Cleyber
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Navarro-Sandoval
authors.forename: Shermany
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Arones-Guevara
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Carrera-Palao
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Casana-Jara
authors.forename: Tomasa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Colque-Jaliri
mesh_terms: D003415:Crime / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016365:Liability, Legal; D008318:Malpractice / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010568:Peru